On our second day of vacation we took my sister to visit The College of William and Mary, which is, I believe, her ultimate dream college. I have been charged with the duty of helping her put together the best possible application. In the meantime, I took pretty pictures.

Day Three was spent at Water Country, U.S.A., where I managed to get only a mild sunburn on one spot on my shoulder. Also, I rode waterslides. Lots of waterslides. But, for me, not getting sunburned is probably the most excellent part of any day spent entirely outside.

Yesterday was primarily spent driving down to the Outer Banks. We passed Kill Devil Hills where the Wright brothers flew–I’ve been promised that we’re going back so that I can indulge in some geekiness. We also made a stop at the largest Kitty Hawk Kites store in the area. Damn is that place awesome! It’s where my parents got my Wright flyer kite. My sister had forgotten to pack her kite and my kite was too big to bring on the plane, so my parents ended up buying two kites to fly while we’re down here. I also got myself another kite. Because I’m crazy like that. Although, if I got to be as completely crazy as I’d like to be, I’d be signing up for hang gliding lessons over the 80 foot sand dunes on Jockey’s Ridge!

Our campground is on Hatteras Island, which, at this point, is only about a quarter mile wide, so it’s an easy walk from our campsite to either the Atlantic Ocean or the sound side of the island. After we got the campsite set up, I took a walk over to the ocean side and started having fun taking photos.

After dinner I ran over to the sound side of the island so that I could get a sunset over water picture to add to the collection I started when we lived overseas. I’m really pleased with how they came out, but that probably won’t stop me from continuing to go over there at nightfall to get some more. I may even get up early one morning to get a sunrise photo over the ocean!

Today we got up fairly late and spent most of the afternoon on the beach. The conditions weren’t the best for it, but Kelley and I tried the boogie boards anyway. We got pretty scraped up; my sister’s sworn that she’s not leaving the trailer again. This comes after yesterday’s frolicking. We’ll see how long that lasts. Dad and I got their new box kite out, but the wind was a bit rough for it. Still, some of the other people on the beach said it made for a nice air show while it lasted. I’m sure we’ll have better chances for kite-flying later.